NEW YORK — It has become evident in recent days that the Flyers should try their mightiest to trade some forward scoring muscle for a lot of back-end support.

With Andrej Meszaros constantly injured, sick or both, the club’s defensive depth is always at issue, and its strength at the point on the power play is a major question mark.

While the Flyers’ power play continues to limp along because of their streaking forwards, their lack of defensive depth was really exposed Tuesday night in what became a 4-2 loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

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Ryan Callahan and Rick Nash led the way for the Rangers with a pair of goals each. The Flyers countered early with a pair of power-play goals by hot shooters Wayne Simmonds and Jakub Voracek, respectively. But that was before their defense crumbled.

What caused the chaos was a lower body injury to Nick Grossmann that ended his night after one period. Grossmann is having a terrific season, and entering the game led the NHL in blocked shots. Now they may have to do without him for a while, and the consequences of that were clearly on display Tuesday night in a final, brutal period for the Flyers.

The Rangers, lulled to sleep during much of the first two periods, came alive in the third when they realized it was easy to gain the Flyers’ defensive zone. Capping that was a decision by goalie Ilya Bryzgalov to not attack onrushing Ranger skaters, leaving the skilled Callahan and Nash to beat him ... and thereby extending the Flyers’ losing streak at the Garden to six.

“They play more patiently than we do,” Bryzgalov said. “They got more chances and they capitalize on it.”

So the Flyers (11-12-1) fumbled away their long-sought .500 medal, and also their standing on the Eastern Conference’s (not-so) Elite Eight ladder. And they had climbed so hard to get a foothold there.

“Not good,” Bryzgalov blurted. “We’re not good. We’re obviously not in the spot we wanted to be. And the farther it’s going to be, it’s going to be more ugly.

What else I can say?”

Asked what improvements they could or should immediately make, Bryzgalov hesitated, then said, “I can’t afford to say this. We have coaches and they have to be responsible for the improvements.”

But it doesn’t take a weary Russian goalie to know the Flyers are dealing with severe lack of protection issues, and as a result might want to ask Meszaros how he feels. They could also ponder a waiver claim on veteran defender Roman Hamrlik, who was exposed Tuesday by the Washington Capitals.

It’s not a difficult sell to say that a Grossmann loss for any lengthy period of time can have a thought-provoking impact.

“He’s a big man and wins a lot of battles along the boards,” Bryzgalov said. “When you’re one man down it’s always tough.”

“It’s not easy,” Kimmo Timonen added. “But it’s part of the game. It happens. When you play with the five D, you rotate.”

Or you get spun around.

For starters, Timonen took a necessary penalty outside of Bryzgalov’s crease all of 69 seconds into the game. Then Braydon Coburn failed to clear a puck out of the defensive zone. Derek Stepan quickly found Callahan all alone in front of Bryzgalov (16 saves) and it was be 1-zip 1:30 into the game. That done, the Flyers finally got ready to start the game. Gifted with power-play chances, they took advantage.

Claude Giroux fired a perfect pinpoint pass beyond goalie Henrik Lundqvist to Simmonds, who had a yawning net to hit for 1-1. Then on another man-advantage chance, Simmonds worked the puck to Voracek, who was left alone to plant his own rebound at 17:08 of the period for a 2-1 Flyers lead.

But a turnover at center ice gave Ryan McDonagh the puck and he sprung Callahan on a charge down the left side. Luke Schenn tried to do a belly slide defensive maneuver but badly mistimed it, and Callahan veered around him and jammed the puck past Bryzgalov for 2-2.

That gave Callahan 15 goals in 30 career games against the Flyers.

The teams stutter-skated through a lifeless second period, but the Rangers wasted little time in the third regaining the lead. This time it was Dan Girardi firing a pass off the sideboards and thereby springing Nash, who gained leverage on Schenn and fired a shot from the circle that beat Bryzgalov under his stick arm at 2:50 for a 3-2 New York lead.

Nash, the heralded offseason acquisition on Broadway, then produced a flashier encore, dancing around Timonen then freezing Bryzgalov before tucking the puck home for an insurance goal. Nash has seven of them this season for the Rangers. All seven of those goals came during third periods.

“They had a couple of solid chances in the third period and they scored against us,” Voracek said. “We’re too good of a team to lose a game like that.”

Considering the Flyers’ record, and with the Penguins and Bruins lined up on deck, that’s a point that might be still up for a fast debate.

“It means our next game,” Giroux said, “is going to be our biggest game of the season.”